Kevin DeVantier enters his third season as an assistant coach with the Norfolk State men’s basketball team in 2015-16. Known as a shooter’s coach, DeVantier works primarily with the guards and also serves as the assistant recruiting coordinator.
DeVantier’s other duties at NSU include overseeing the academic progress of the players and the team’s strength and conditioning needs, working with the school’s compliance department and helping with fundraising activities.
After a successful career at the junior college level, DeVantier joined NSU prior to the 2013-14 campaign. During his first two seasons with the program, the Spartans made a pair of appearances in the MEAC tournament semifinals and advanced to the CollegeInsider.com tournament both years.
The Spartans posted their third 20-win season in four years with a 20-14 campaign in 2014-15, finishing second in the MEAC regular season standings at 12-4. That came on the heels of a 19-15 season in 2013-14, when the Spartans tied for third in the standings at 11-5. NSU now ranks as the only school in the league to advance to the postseason each of the last four years.
The Spartan offense has had two of its best seasons in years during DeVantier’s time with the program. NSU has finished in the top 2 in the MEAC both years in field goal percentage and assist-turnover ratio and in the top 4 in scoring and scoring margin. The Spartans shot 47.2 percent as a team in 2014-15, their best mark in 16 years, after leading the conference the year before at 46.4 percent.
In 2013-14, they also had their best 3-point shooting percentage in 15 years (35.1) and their best free throw percentage in 10 years (69.3). The Spartans have averaged better than 70 points per game each of the last two seasons, just the second and third times doing so in the last 14 years.
Guard Jeff Short earned first-team All-MEAC honors in 2015 after ranking second in the league in scoring at 19.1 points per game. A first-team NABC all-district and second-team all-state performer, Short stood in the top 8 in the league in field goal, 3-point field goal and free throw percentages. Along with D’Shon Taylor, NSU was the only school in the league in 2014-15 with two guards ranked in the top 15 in the league in scoring.
Pendarvis Williams and Malcolm Hawkins were each named to the All-MEAC second team in 2014 thanks to their improved marksmanship from the previous year. Both players finished in the top 10 in the MEAC in scoring and shot career highs in field goal and free throw percentages. Hawkins also ranked first in the league in 3-point shooting at better than 41 percent.
Prior to his arrival at NSU, DeVantier spent seven seasons as a head coach at two junior college programs, including four seasons at Sullivan County Community College in Loch Sheldrake, N.Y., from 2009-13. He posted a 121-16 overall record during his time there, winning the Mid-Hudson Conference championship each time without suffering a loss during that four-year stretch.
He also won the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region 15 championship for three straight years from 2010-12 and finished with just one regular season loss in regional play over four years. The Generals also qualified for the NJCAA Division III national tournament in both 2010 and ’11 and never ranked worse than ninth nationally in three seasons from 2009-12.
DeVantier was named the District 5 Coach of the Year in 2010 and ’11 as well as the Region 15 Coach of the Year in 2010 and ’12. During his time at Sullivan County, he coached two All-Americans, two regional players of the year, six first-team all-region players, three conference players of the year and four national players of the week.
Along with his coaching duties, DeVantier also engaged in various fundraising activities for the men’s basketball program.
Prior to his arrival at Sullivan County, DeVantier spent three seasons as the head coach at Columbia-Greene CC in Hudson, N.Y. He coached two all-region players there and defeated three top-10 nationally ranked programs. He inherited a team that had gone 0-30 the previous season and within three years finished 14-14 overall.
DeVantier also served as Columbia-Greene’s athletics director and the athletic department’s enrollment coordinator for two years from 2007-09.
DeVantier and Norfolk State head coach Robert Jones are not strangers, having worked together as assistant coaches at SUNY New Paltz during the 2003-04 season before Jones left to join the high school ranks. DeVantier was an assistant coach at New Paltz for three seasons altogether from 2003-06. Along with his basketball duties, he also served as the assistant wellness director and strength and conditioning coach and the assistant intramural director.
Team captain at SUNY Cortland, DeVantier led his alma mater to the NCAA D-III Sweet 16 in 2000 with a 24-5 overall record that year. He was the Red Letter Award winner at SUNY Cortland for his leadership and playing ability. A native of Roscoe, N.Y., he was also a three-year letterwinner at Roscoe High in both football and basketball.
DeVantier earned his bachelor’s in physical education from SUNY Cortland in 2003. He and his wife, Amber, reside in Virginia Beach with their one-year-old daughter, Kennidy.
